|
Its possible that the odo was opened for repair, but, unfortunately, given the facts that you present, my out of the blue, gut feeling guess is that your odo has been tampered with.
Why? (1) The purported mileage is very low for a car that is 17 model years old. (2) I presume that you have no records for the car. (3) Independent dealers for some reason are always the ones getting busted for odo fraud (not all are bad, I'm sure there are many good ones, but when you hear of odo fraud, its always seems to be the smaller to mid size independents). (4) if the odo was legitimately repaired by a shop for legit reasons, it would have been documented with a sticker and other documentation. (5) you are doing a "quasi restoration" on a car that purportedly was only driven 5,000 miles per year. Such a car should not usually need any restoration. (6) odo tampering is very common on older Porsches, because it adds lots of value and is very, very easy to do.
There actually are lots of things you could and should do. All cars have a "paper trail." You need to follow it and find as much documentation as possible. This would include the Department of Motor Vehicles (when the car's title was ever transferred, the mileage would have been recorded). I would start there. Tell them your problem and they should be able to help. If your state requires smogs and/or annual inspections, the state should also have some mileage documentation. If you have any repair invoices at all, contact the shops indicated for possibly more invoices (I caught a guy once by this method, its a great, funny story).
If your car came from out of state, you will have more difficulty. If this is the case, I would guess that the odo has almost certainly been tampered with.
If you can document that the mileage has been tampered with, I'm sure that the seller would be more than willing to quietly refund your money, and even take back the car if it is disassembled.
Finally, for other prospective purchasers of older 911s, always be suspicious of "low mileage" cars. When I look at "low mileage" older cars, I always go in with the presumption that the mileage is NOT accurate. It is then up to the seller, using documentation, to overcome this presumption. If they cannot, I usually recommend passing on the car, at least to the extent that a premium is being paid for the "low mileage."
911SC's are cars that generally were driven as daily drivers, and tend to accumulate some miles. Any 911SC that purports to have been driven 5,000 miles per year or less should be looked at with a very critical eye.
|